CHAPTER EIGHT
New Roles, New Faces, A New Name
1970-1979

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An average of 2,549 civilian employees and 418 military members supported the Station's efforts in the 1970's.

NAD Bangor was disestablished and Keyport took over its responsibilities in 1970. Also in that year, Naval Ordnance Station, Forest Park, Illinois, was closed and all of its underwater weapon functions and many of its employees were transferred to Keyport.

In 1972, the total civilian and military complement (3,158) exceeded the Station's all time high of 2,856 which was set during World War II. The increase was due primarily to shiploading efforts in support of the Vietnam conflict.

The Mk 48 Torpedo Shop (Building 514) was dedicated on June 21, 1973. Also in that year, the selection of Bangor as the site for the Trident Submarine Base added support service responsibilities to NTS.

By 1978, with the addition of the three detachments and the many new responsibilities, the Station's name was outdated. No longer was Naval Torpedo Station sufficient to cover the range of underwater weapons included in its mission. On May 3, 1978, NTS was officially changed to Naval Undersea Warfare Engineering Station (NUWES), pronounced "news."

To round-out the decade, a new test range was installed at the Washington Coast in 1979. It was called Quinault Underwater Tracking Range and was established to support the Advanced Lightweight Torpedo project.

Also in that year, the Foundation for the current Naval Undersea Museum was established.

Members of the Keyport community went all out for the town's celebration of the Bicentennial. Firemen served-up a pancake breakfast and Improvement Club members, above, served coffee to the many attendees of the event. Long-time Station employee, Juanita Bloomquist is second from left.

A typical January day at Keyport brings to mind wet evergreens, chilling north winds, mudgreen water, and rocky beaches. That's not to put a damper on a Washington winter, but in one certain January, the Naval Torpedo Station took on a new image.

It was 1974; palm trees, tropical breezes, turquoise ocean, and white coral sand were added to the image brought forth above. But, as you've guessed, it wasn't in Washington State. It was in Hawaii, where NTS was inaugurating its first detachment.

Since the Naval Ammunition Depot, Oahu, was being decommissioned, 90 of its employees, who were to take on the task of supporting the Pacific Fleet in the Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) field, needed a parent command. And since NUWES had a similar mission and was located on the West Coast, it was charged with this new element.

The Detachment has since taken on an increasingly important role, performing ASW system tests, supporting Fleet exercises at Barking Sands Underwater

The Detachment includes elements at two locations on the island of Kauai, one at Port Allen, and the other at Barking Sands. These two remote areas work with the Mk 30 mobile target used in Fleet exercises.

The Station held a small operation in Hawaii prior to the commissioning of the Detachment. As part of the Quality Evaluation and Engineering Laboratory, employees took acoustic measurements from World War II-vintage Quonset huts that were anchored to dusty concrete slabs, rusted through in places, and nearly unbearable in the intense summer heat. That operation was turned over to Naval Weapons Station, Seal Beach, California in 1973.

Somewhere in the deserts of Nevada a small Navy detachment, several hundred miles from any ocean, maintains 30 percent of the United State's inventory of underwater mines. Though the desert seems a rather unlikely place for the Navy, Hawthorne is ideal for this NUWES detachment.

Hawthorne was a prosperous mining town when it was all but wiped off the map by a major fire in 1926. Ironically, another devastating fire that same week in another part of the country brought renewed hope to the charred town. This other fire destroyed a multimillion dollar Naval ammunition depot in New Jersey. Hawthorne was chosen to take its place because of its arid climate, its close proximity to the West Coast's Pacific Fleet, and its ability to expand if necessary.

Covering 237 square miles, the new Naval

Functions involving underwater ordnance were excluded from the charter of the new Hawthorne Army Ammunition Plant. NTS' parent command, Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), was charged with providing an organization to administer these functions. NAVSEA turned the job over to NTS, which was the sole NAVSEA field activity in the Western U.S. to have an underwater weapon and mine workload. NTS soon changed its name to Naval Undersea Warfare Engineering Station to reflect its newly diversified mission.

Today, the Detachment handles the storage, maintenance, assembly, overhaul, and repair for various mines and torpedo programs for the Fleet.

About the same time the Hawthorne Detachment was being welcomed into NUWES' fold, another detachment was also being established. This one in San Diego, California.

In the early 1970's, the Station was sending engineers and technicians on temporary duty to a centralized ASW testing program in Southern California to conduct Weapon System Accuracy Trials and provide support to the Naval Electronics Laboratory Center on San Clemente Island.

By 1974, four NUWES employees were permanently transferred to San Diego, making up a new branch of the Station's Technical Operations Department. In 1975, NUWES was formally designated as the ASW Test Agent for the Pacific.

In October 1976, this operation was established as the Southern California Detachment, a division of the Proof, Test and Evaluation Department at Keyport. Located in a gymnasium at the Navy Field Complex in San Diego, the staff consisted of engineers, technicians, and computer specialists.

From 1977 to 1982, the operation and maintenance of the Sensory Accuracy Check Site in Long Beach was added to the Detachment's responsibilities. In 1979, the Detachment moved out of the gymnasium and into its present facility on Balboa Avenue.

In 1982, the Detachment's San Clemente Island Underwater Range was certified for Fleet testing and

In its early days, SOCAL used this ring-like pier to check Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) systems on Navy ships.

The final detachment of NUWES is an ordnance operation at Indian Island, a lovely wildlife refuge on Washington State's Olympic Peninsula.

The Island didn't become a part of NUWES until 1970, but its Naval history goes back to autumn of 1939 when the nearby waters of Port Townsend Bay were used for nets to protect Fleet anchorages in the event of war.

In 1941, it was commissioned U.S. Naval Net Depot and U.S. Naval Magazine, Indian Island.

Indian Island riggers load a standard missile onto a guided missile frigate at the Island's wharf.

An ordnance handling pier, a segregation and renovation facility, and support buildings were added to the Island.

Today, 120 civilian employees and 30 military members support the Detachment which has the capability to receive, store, maintain, and issue various types of Naval ordnance. Explosive ordnance and inert materials are received by commercial trucks from locations throughout the U.S. Ordnance is also received from ships enroute to the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and from barge shipments to the Island.

Because the Island is a wildlife refuge, the Navy takes care of the wildlife populations. There are three known nesting sites for bald eagles and the majestic bird makes it presence known particularly during the months of January, February, and March. Over 200 different species of animals have migrated to the Island including deer, fox, coyote, hawk, otter and raccoon.

The excellent care taken with the wildlife and its environment earned NUWES the Department of Defense Natural Resources Award in 1983 and an honorable mention in 1987.

You wouldn't have known he was 80 by looking at him, but that was his age when he finally retired from Keyport on December 22, 1976.

The slightly white-haired man who spoke with a bit of a Norwegian accent was well-thought-of by his coworkers who would remember him as one who had the incredible ability and initiative to pursue more than a dozen different fields of study in his lifetime.

Born in Norway in 1896, Bryn earned his masters degree in civil engineering there. Before coming to the U.S. in 1938, he traveled to more than 65 different countries and worked all over the world.

Bryn was a pioneer in the field of thermal energy, with ideas thought to be ahead of his time. Preferring thermal to atomic, he believed that a system of thermal energy plants in the earth's warm oceans could provide 200 times as much energy as needed in this country.

He was 65 when he first passed through the Station's gates, an age at which most have already retired. Bryn believed that age had nothing to do with limitation, "when you run into a barrier one place, then you should look elsewhere," he said.

Bryn spent 15 years as an engineer in the Quality Assurance Program. He enjoyed his work at Keyport because he held an appreciation for U.S. weapons and the role they played in World War II.

At the age of 80, Bryn was faced with a mandatory retirement regulation by which he abided with some regret, but with even more hope for a new career field to pursue.

As he left Keyport, he affirmed that keeping active would keep him young. "I don't think long life is a sign of a man being very wise. But keeping the mind bubbling with ideas all the time helps a man to live fully."

The queen of the fleet is the USNV New Bedford (IX-308). She was built in Whitestone, N.Y. in 1945 by Wheeler Shipbuilding Company. Originally built for the Army and designated FS-289, she was transferred to the Navy in 1950, and designated as USS New Bedford (AKL-17). The ship was subsequently converted for torpedo testing, redesignated as the IX-308, and assigned Service Craft status (in-service active). Her claim to fame was being the set for the 1955 movie "Mr. Roberts" starring Henry Fonda, James Cagney and Jack Lemmon. The IX-308 is 176 ft., 6 in., long; has a beam of 32 ft., 6 in.; and a draft of lift.

The Cover Lighter (Self-Propelled) YF-451 was built by the Balsalt Rock Company at Napa, Calif. and accepted by the Navy in 1944. The ship was transferred to NUWES in 1951 and at that time converted by the Lake Union Drydock Company for torpedo testing. She was redesignated at that time as a Covered Lighter (Range Tender), YFRT-451, and assigned in-service active Service Craft status. She is 133 ft., 7 in. long; has a beam of 30 ft., 8 in.; and a draft of 9 ft.

The Covered Lighter (Range Tender) YF-520 was built by the Erie Concrete and Supply Company, Erie, Pa., in March 1943. She was assigned to NUWES in

The Covered Lighter (Self-Propelled) YF-885 was built by the Defoe Shipbuilding Company at Bay City, Mich. She was launched on May 19, 1945 and accepted by the Navy on July 24, 1945. After service at various west coast Naval activities, she was deactivated on April 13, 1950 at Pier 91, Naval Supply Center, Seattle. She was reactivated and assigned in-service active Service Craft status on August 15, 1950 and transferred to the U.S. Naval Ammunition Depot, Bangor for service as an ammunition lighter. On April 4, 1960, the vessel was transferred to Keyport and designated an Underwater Weapons Recovery Craft. In 1965 she was named USNV Keyport. She is 132 ft. long; has a beam of 30 ft., 6 in.; and a draft of 8 ft., 6 in.

Other vessels assigned to NUWES are: